Cleared direct Gateway.

Not much to report for these 3 days so I will merge them into one.

I flew every day though no ground school on the weekend.  I spent much of Saturday studying and then met up with my family for dinner.  Sunday was a crappy day.  I thought I could take the written exam at 10am.  But unfortunetly you cannot take an exam while others are studying for theirs.  So we all needed to wait for two guys to take their ATP written before we could start the test.  At 715pm I was on my way out the door.  But I passed and that’s all that counts.

Day 4:

I was still awake at 1am so I decided it would be a great idea to just stay up until I needed to jump in the shower at 345am.  The plan was to go to the airport, fly, and come home and sleep for a bit then head back for ground school.  I grabbed a Dr. Pepper and a Snickers bar and went out to preflight.   Something told me that wasn’t a great idea but I needed to stay awake. 

Our lesson today was steep turns and power on/off stalls.  I was a bit nervous about stalling the airplane (see where I’m going with this?) but now have an understanding as to how it works and how to prevent them.

Once I turned onto final it became quite clear that Dr. Pepper and Snickers aren’t a good combo when you haven’t slept in 36 hours.  Needless to say we taxiied in with urgency and I made a pit stop at home. 

Later that day I went out and purchased the ASA Prepware CDROM for the Private Written.  I recommend it to anyone who is studying for the written exam.  My parents are intown this week so it’s been tough trying to balance school, family time and study for the written.  Flew again today but no ground school since it was Saturday. 

I finally got to meet my instructor today.  She seems great.  We met at about 645am so it would not be too hot and flew out over Johnson’s Ranch into the Southeast practice area.  I was able to practice some basic stuff like straight and level flight and turns.  It was more of a discovery flight than anything else.  The 172 is the smallest airplane I have ever flown in so I imagine that will take some getting used to. 

I grabbed some grub and went over to ground school which is held in the building across the street from the ramp.

The entire day was spent in Ground school.  Watching Jepp DVDs and stopping to explain certain topics.  Nothing much to report here.  It was pretty boring to watch the DVDs but it explains things better than the book.

Nothing to big to report on Day 1.  I arrived at 745am for the first day which was scheduled to being at 800am.  We spent most of the morning filling out tons of paperwork.  We drove up to the apartments which are fairly close to the airport.  It’s a really nice complex with a pool and volleyball courts.  I am not living in the apartments for the Private portion however I am giving some thought to living there during the ACPP.

 We broke for lunch and went back to start ground school.  The two instructors teaching ground school are brand new to ATP but seem to know what they are doing. 

Hello and thanks for stopping by.  My goal is to shed a bit of insight into ATP’s 60-Day Private Pilot and 90-Day Airline Career Pilot programs and help those considering them make the right decision. 

I will tell you a bit about myself so you all know where I am coming from.  After a 2 year hiatus living in my native New Jersey, I decided to come back to Arizona.  I spent the first few weeks bumming around not knowing what I wanted to do careerwise.  Luckily I had an intervention of sorts from a few friends who are just a big airplane dorks as I am.  They made me realize that going back to a job I hated just because it paid well was settling and not pursuing what I loved. 

I researched a ton of flight schools.  From mom and pop FBOs to large flight acadamies.  I visited ATP’s Phoenix center and knew I found the spot.  I was attracted by the guaranteed cost and the fast-track program.  There wasn’t a tremendous cost difference between ATP and the FBOs I considered.  And since I am flying full-time I can’t get distracted by my paycheck while I am working and flying at the same time.  My goal is to instruct while I wait for a spot at one of the regional carriers I am considering.